Knighthood

Summary

This is Survival of the Strongest

The Tournament of the Black Ring is a trial of the strongest warriors of the land, with the reward a guaranteed spot in the Twilight Brotherhood as a knight. All it requires is a fight to the death, winner takes all.

The father of a squire hires Alana and Karlyn Wildstar to retrieve his son from the deadly contest. The sisters infiltrate the tournament, and hey notice the judges create unbalanced rules for those in their favor. The crowd cheers as the matches rage on. The coin flows as freely as the blood. Now they must find the squire before they are locked a doomed gladiatorial combat.

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Knighthood - Chris Weston

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Chapter One

Alana spits blood on the dirt. She can't believe she allowed herself to be punched like that. She picks up her sword and gives chase towards the target. She sees Karlyn keeping up with him. He uses the forest to his advantage, running between trees and using uneven terrain to slow her down. At this direction, he's not going to where they want.

Alana runs across a creek. The cold morning water seeps into her boots. Alana ignores it. Plenty of time to get dry later. She cuts across the forest, following them with her peripheral vision. The morning light rises in their direction, forcing Alana to squint to locate them. They should have grabbed him in the night. Should have, could have. She can't think of the past, there's no time to give it.

She still has time to correct this mistake. A boulder slab is in front of her; one of the markers. She tightens the grip on her sword, and lowers herself to help with momentum. Alana runs up the boulder and leaps off, rolling as she lands. Disoriented, Alana positions herself into a fighting stance. Their target falters and runs to her right. She gives a faux swing to keep his adrenaline running.

A bolt shoots at their bounty, but he moves out of the way just before it reaches him. Alana turns to see Karlyn readying another shot.

Karlyn yells out, Hurry and catch him.

He's not going to get away.

I'll believe that when I see it.

A crack of wood echoes out behind her. The trap triggered. Alana breathes out a sigh, at least she can stop running now. She sits on the ground. The forest hasn't stopped spinning yet. Karlyn extends a hand, helping Alana off the dirt. How are you feeling?

A little light-headed, Alana responds. I can go for a good breakfast when we get back to town.

Picking up her sword, she sheathes it and goes to check on their prey. The bounty is hanging upside down, a rope fastened around his leg. The trap worked. Not that she doubted Karlyn's craftsmanship. His untucked shirt is covering most of his face.

Karlyn walks up to him. We can wait until the blood rushes to his head and he passes out. That's an option.

The bounty flails wildly hearing their voices. He pulls out a knife from his belt. Alana takes an extra step back for caution. Oh look, he's trying to cut himself free.

The bounty attempts to pull himself towards his feet, but can't quit manage it. Each time he curls, he falls right back down. No amount of stretching will cause him to reach the rope, let alone the time and effort it takes to cut through it.

I had to do it once, Alana says to him. It's more demanding than it appears. I don't think you're the type who has the shape for it. She walks up and snatches the knife from his hand. He's a big one to drag back.

It's a day's ride. Less if we keep a good pace, Karlyn says.

He killed a guard. We'd have to keep an eye on him and make sure he's not up to something. Is there a price difference in how he's returned?

Not even by a copper piece.

Alana shrugs. No reason to not keep the load light.

Pulling her hatchet out, Karlyn grabs their bounty by his hair and brings the hatchet to his neck.

Chapter Two

Some of the coins have bloodstains smeared on them. Alana checks the side of her palm. Blood fell down her arm when handing the bounty over. She forgot to wash her hands since they returned. She gestures a nearby barmaid and asks her for a wet cloth.

The barmaid returns with the wet cloth, and Alana cleans her hands. Alana finishes the pork on her plate, and gulps it down with her cup of ale. Lately, the alive or dead bounties have been coming back dead. I'm wondering if we're being too aggressive in our dealings.

Karlyn says, The last one shot at us with a bow and arrow, the one before that tried to trap us in a burning house, and the one before that actually wanted to eat us. So no, I don't think we're too aggressive. I think we're doing just fine. Real angry people in these lands, wouldn't you say?

Alana responds, Same as every other place. With this reward, we should be fine for some time. Two weeks, if we're careful with what we spend on. Alana clicks her tongue. We need to get more gold.

I'm not personally objecting to being paid in gold, but we deal with what we deal with. We went through our previous bounties quick. And you gambled away of whatever we didn't go through.

Alana exhales and strums her fingers on the table. I'm typically good at cards. All I was trying to do was get some usable currency. Better than running after some criminal to get a little money. And besides, you saw their faces when they won our pile, they were so happy. Doesn't it just fill you with enjoyment we made someone's day?

"Copper, sure. Gold, no. That's our problem. Every place we encounter is a little bit different. Silver, copper, their value changes constantly. Gold, that seems to hold its value wherever we go. It's a universal language. If we were to have some gold on